


Is there life on Pern?

by Petra



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey, Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-22
Updated: 2011-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-29 19:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/323212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petra/pseuds/Petra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>S'muel was a wingleader, whether or not anyone treated him that way in this strange Turn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Is there life on Pern?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [basaltgrrl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/basaltgrrl/gifts).



> For [](http://basaltgrrl.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**basaltgrrl**](http://basaltgrrl.dreamwidth.org/), who started it [in this thread](http://petra.dreamwidth.org/433525.html?thread=8154229#cmt8154229), with love. Possibly functions as a companion story to [Sam the brainship](http://petra.dreamwidth.org/452185.html). Please don't sue me, Ms. McCaffrey's lawyers.

The headaches were strong, even weeks later, through all the fellis juice the weyrhealer would give S’muel. When he asked for something else, she told him he was just lucky he and bronze Jepeth had survived, going _between_ with Thread wounds like that. They’d meant to jump home, but the pain had addled S’muel’s mind, so instead of home they were decades in the past, before Telgar Weyr was the place he knew, at the beginning of the Pass instead of halfway through it.

With a Weyrleader who thought he was a shard-skulled fool for suggesting the formations he did, and whose wide-winged Cortinath darted through Threadfall like a fish through water.

Though when S’muel argued his point long enough, G’een tried the formation changes, and they made things better. It might’ve been a paradox, but it was a paradox that saved lives, and S’muel couldn’t bring himself to regret it. He was a wingleader, whether or not anyone treated him that way in this strange Turn.

It should’ve been easy to get home, but not with the headaches that plagued him still, and with Jepeth still recovering from the Thread that had eaten away at his skin, S’muel didn’t dare a long jump, not even to get away from the Weyrleader’s annoyance every time their paths crossed, or from R’mundo, whose bronze was the smallest of that color S’muel had ever seen. He made up for the size of his dragon with the size of his bluster and his mustache. Though R’mundo’s bronze would never fly a queen, he shared a weyr with green Sharonath, whose rider T’fer followed R’mundo everywhere. S’muel couldn’t tell whether T’fer’s devotion was fondness or self-preservation, and he didn’t intend to ask.

He had his own romantic troubles, for Jepeth in his recovery had set up a friendship with Kartith, a queen young enough that she hadn’t flown yet. Her weyrwoman Anni had impressed late--she’d been a healer in the Lower Caverns, and no one had found her on Search, but when Kartith rejected all the candidates and ran straight for her, or so the story went, Impression knew no boundaries.

Neither did R’mundo, who ignored the age-old stricture against riders dueling. But then, G’een had threatened S’muel when he first arrived--first with fists, and then with treatment more suited to a greenrider’s proclivities. If the latter had been a threat, and not some overbearing flirtation; S’muel barely understood G’een at the best of times.

It was not the Telgar he knew and loved.

 _We really ought to try to get home if you’re well enough._ S’muel spoke to Jepeth to distract him while the weyrhealer checked his stitches.

 _And leave Kartith?_ Jepeth asked, sounding as though that would tear him in half. As though he hadn’t been twining necks with Maia’s Eltonoth back home, not a month before.

S’muel patted one of the intact parts of his neck. _She’d understand._

He would have to check the weyr records when he got home, for he’d never met Kartith in his own time. She must have moved to a different weyr, far enough away that their weyrs didn’t fly to meet Thread together.

 _I don’t know how she’d understand when I don’t._ When Jepeth was frustrated, his mind-voice was as crisp as S’muel’s. _I wish you were as happy here as I am._

S’muel did not let himself think of Anni and the way she laughed as she fought Thread, or the light in G’een’s eyes when S’muel explained the new formation to him and it finally made sense. He’d never been able to make that kind of difference in his own time, but that was better. _We’ll get home soon._

Surely it would be better.  



End file.
